Vanuatu South Pacific

“It’s time for me to get off the ship.” After an 8 day passage across the Pacific from Hawaii, this seemed to be the popular feeling among most of our 1,000 shipmates. We had enjoyed the smooth passage but were looking forward to our first South Seas Island port of call—Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. The Islands of Vanuatu gained Independence from France and Britain in 1980. Prior to this they were known as New Hebrides. Vanuatu was an important group of Islands during WWII and Espiritu Santo had 40,000 American and Australian troops acting as the forward military base for fighting in the South Pacific. Much of the supplies and troops were stationed there as support for the Solomon Islands (to the North) and the many South Pacific battles such as Guadalcanal.
The author, James Michener was stationed on Espiritu Santo during the war and documented much of what he learned. He based his first book “Tales of the South Pacific” on his new found knowledge of the cultures and experiences of this Island. The book won a Pulitzer Prize and later became a Broadway show “South Pacific.” His later book Bali Hai was also based roughly on the Islands and Volcanoes’ of Vanuatu. The hospital in “South Pacific” was just outside our next Island stop, Port Vila.
As we found out during our tour of Espiritu Santo the island also has a number of Bomber and shipwreck sights. The SS President Coolidge hit a mine and sunk near the harbor.
We left the Rotterdam for our tour in the middle of some Rain squalls that did not let up for most of the day. The rainy season here is Jan to April so it’s nothing unusual. Our 8:00 AM tour consisted of a caravan of 4 minibuses (with no leg room) and a drive down gravel roads, past several villages, before arriving at Paradise Lagoon for swimming and snorkeling. It’s a beautiful place and you can actually die on an old Bomber wreck that missed the airstrip about a mile inland. The stop was accompanied by some native music and crafts. Our next stop was to the Blue Hole which is a popular island swimming cove. The pictures posted show the spectacularly blue water, much of it due to the Limestone shelf surrounding the lagoon. After 30 minutes of swimming in the rain we boarded the buses for a return trip back to the ship. Not so fast. We found that the buses all got stuck in the mud attempting to climb a small hill leading away from the Blue Hole. One by one we got off the buses and helped the drivers push the buses up the hills. It was pretty funny when each bus would slide back down the hill time and again. But with time and energy (by the drivers) we were on our way.
After arriving back on the ship we dried off and took the 10 minute walk into the town of Luganville. The town is quite small and is not packed with shops. The Australians vacation here and there are a few small hotels. It does have an interesting local market and a number of shops run by Chinese (I wonder where the stuff is made?). After visiting these we decided it was time to try the local Beer—“Tusker.” This is good Beer—pretty strong though. After a few of these we didn’t even notice the rain on the way back to the ship. A great day and we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s larger call on the much larger Port Vila. That will be in a separate Posting.